I See Hell

IM:  Gadfly, we have not heard from you since early March.

Old Gadfly:  I apologize for the lack of communication.  My father was very ill.  He experienced congestive heart failure at the end of October 2014 and initially was not expected to leave the intensive care unit alive.  He received some blood transfusions that turned his situation around and was released from the hospital with the expectation that many follow-up actions take place with specialists.  He agreed to let my wife and I be primary care providers from our home.  While it changed our routines, it was a true blessing because it gave my wife and me an opportunity to really get to know my father.

AM:  I was wondering why we had not heard from you, Gadfly.  How did things go?

Old Gadfly:  Most of my father’s care was through the VA system.  We experienced first-hand many of the concerns that have put the VA in bad light.  I would like to save that discussion for another day.

IM:  Why?

Old Gadfly:  There is something far more important to share.

AM:  What could be more important than the arguably criminal activity at the VA hospitals?

Old Gadfly:  As I process things going on in our society, there is something even far more important than the negligent or criminal behavior at VA hospitals.  It is spiritual accountability.

IM:  Tell us more, Gadfly.

Old Gadfly:  I was with my father in hospice, as he was dying.  The last words he spoke were on the 9^th of March.  He sat up in bed, reached for me, looked me in the eyes without any fear and said, “I see hell.”  He was not afraid, so I immediately recognized that he was a messenger—revealing a message for me and all living human beings.  There is a heaven and a hell.  All of us will be rewarded with one or the other based on choices we make in this life.

AM:    Your father did not say anything else after this?

Old Gadfly:  My father communicated in another way.  At around 4:00 AM on the 10^th of March, he sat up in bed.  He opened his eyes.  They shined and radiated pure joy.  He let go of my hand and reached out to entities in the room I could not see.  Who did he see?  Angels?  My mother?  Other family members?  There was no doubt that he had connected to a dimension that we might call the afterlife.

IM:  What are we to take away from this?

Old Gadfly:  Most of us are so consumed by our daily lives that we typically accommodate the easy path.  It is easier to be on good terms with those we know as opposed to enduring commands or principles.

AM:  Let me be the devil’s advocate.  What if I have a loved one who is engaging in behaviors that might be considered sinful by a God?  Should I not show compassion for this loved one?

Old Gadfly:  Absolutely.  Jesus was far more interested in the lost sheep than those that were not.  Yet, His role was not to celebrate being lost or to keep them lost, but to return them to the flock of salvation.

IM:  But there is a growing population that believes the state is just as capable of establishing the standards of moral behavior—as in a very recent US Supreme Court ruling on same sex marriage.

Old Gadfly:  From a secular legalistic perspective, two Supreme Court Justices violated the law by not recusing themselves because they had presided over same-sex marriages before making a judgment in this case.  They violated the law (man-made law) by not recusing themselves in the case.  But, apparently, it was more important to violate the law than to advance a political agenda.  And what is that agenda?  That man determines rights, not God.  Of all the things that my father might have said as he was dying, he said, “I see hell.”  My Dad always offered good “fatherly advice” to me in my lifetime.  Why would I doubt his counsel at this existential point in his own life?